Thinking Long Term

Skeptical of long-term care insurance? You're not alone, and more and more advisors are arguing that the benefits outweigh the costs.

For Lana Leger, 72, a retiree in Naples, Fla., it was her mother's illness that prompted her to think about long-term care insurance. When Leger was in her late 50s, her aging mother needed help. She eventually wound up in a home where she died, peacefully, after requesting her little Christmas tree be lit up.

"She had the money to sustain herself," Leger says, but it triggered a new concern -- one that many of us can relate to: "What would happen to me? What if I didn't have the money?" Leger recalls....